I was talking to a man in the pharmacy this week about this exact subject. Technology, and the fact that it makes the world so fast, and that our kids know nothing else.

I have had children in an age where everything we need is literally at our fingertips.

Music, photographs, groceries, any baby item we may need to purchase, the gym timetable (!), videos, the latest episode of Paw Patrol, or Peppa Pig on loop, all at the touch of a button or two on our phones.

Despite growing up without such luxuries, it is something that as an adult, I have become accustomed to. I don’t really have to make a lot go effort to access any information I need, and I get frustrated if I can’t get it it quicker than the few seconds of load time my current iPhone operates at.

It goes without saying then, that my children will know no different. They have only ever known me with a phone in my hand, tapping away sending messages, checking email, watching YouTube videos for some downtime, or checking Facebook. They don’t know the old version of me, where I actually went to a record shop to purchase music.

Having children in this world has meant that there have been quite a few helpful shortcuts in parenting. From even before you find out you are pregnant, there is no doubt that many women are on Google, checking when they should be ovulating via a number of online calculators, or checking out the symptoms of early pregnancy, even though I can’t imagine that there are many of us that don’t already know what these are! Then the moment arrives, you’re pregnant! Cue the downloading of one of the many available pregnancy apps, which detail what stage you are at, how you should be feeling, what you should be eating and even what your little fig looks like at 13 weeks.

Then pass months of checking out every twinge you have on every pregnancy page you can find, downloading books, the Mothercare app, and shopping for your forthcoming arrival.

Then the baby arrives, and those little pieces of technology really come into their own. There were nights where Lylah was screaming and screaming, and we didn’t know what to do. Do you know what I can remember from those nights? Chris hunched over a faint blue light on the edge of the bed, frantically Googling what to do with a 2 week old screaming baby who likely has colic.

The Mothercare app was a Godsend. Lylah fell asleep instantly to the hairdryer noise, and that soon became our go-to solution. Never mind singing lullabies, rocking her to sleep or anything else; we tapped the screen, let the hair dryer noise come out and watch her drift off to sleep. I discovered YouTube on our Smart TV and played white noise that way as well, meaning naps in the living room in her chair whilst I was able to do stuff in the rest of the house. It has come in handy the second time round as well, but with baby number 2 I found an app with an advanced feature. It switches on as soon as baby cries, and fades out again! Pure genius!

As Lylah has grown, her access to technology has only increased. TV watching (no matter how much I said before children that it would be rare occurrence) allows me to get some housework done. The smart TV means that I can access anything she wants on YouTube at any time. Sky Plus means box sets and instant downloading. If Lylah asks for something and I say sorry, it isn’t on at the moment, she says “but Mummy, just load it up!”

This terminology presented itself in normal conversation in the car yesterday. We were on our way to the shops, and she asked me whether we could play a game (where we pretend we are Anna & Elsa) when we were in the car and going. I said yes, but asked why we couldn’t play it while we were getting into the car? She said it’s because the game hadn’t finished “loading up”!

The other day, we were playing a game of musical chairs. She send she wanted to do the music, which was basically her singing a song. She said “the music is coming on” and pretended she was holding a mobile phone, tapped the screen and said “bleep”. My three year old thinks that music comes from a mobile phone! Which, in her world, it does.

As parents, we can control and monitor our children’s access to technology. Reading the above back to myself, it sounds like Lylah is constantly on some form of gadget, which actually isn’t the case. But is she familiar and aware of it? Yes, of course, because we live in 2016.

Yes, it would be good to slow down. Yes, it would be great to have more patience and not rely on technology for everything; that’s down to the individual to control. We need some balance, yes, between the world of everything being ‘right now’ on the other side of our phone screens, to playing outside in nature and forgetting what time it is.

Could I have brought children up without the helping hand of technology? Well, yes, people did, and I would have had to.

They need you from the minute they wake up, until the minute their lights goes out, for a variety of reasons.

With Lylah these include; pulling up bottoms after a wee wee, cue “mummy, this is the hard bit!!”, making her breakfast (even though Miss Independent does get it all out and ready for me these days, she still hasn’t quite stretched to putting it all together, she is only 3 after all!), dressing her, plaiting her hair, helping her put Anna and Elsa’s dresses back on, (then off again, then on again), doing her puzzles, finding the lost parts of Sylvanian Families (they are soooo small!), writing letters, writing numbers, more post-toilet help…it goes on and on and on.

This all runs alongside Malachy also needing me, but needing me far more than Lylah does. From the minute he wakes up, he needs me for comfort, for milk, for basic hygiene, for breakfast, for playing, for moving…he’s a baby, you get it!

Often, all this neediness can get on top of you. Even though you know this motherhood lark is going to be demanding, you never quite realise it for real until its happening to you. And then you get a small segment of your day, where they are maybe both napping at the same time, and there is a fifteen minute period, where no one needs you for a moment. That moment goes far too quickly, though the rest of the day, somehow does not!

This all happens without thought. You don’t stop and think about your every action being crucial to your children’s happiness, development, health. You just do it, because, well, that’s what you signed up for.

Then there are times when they really need you. And this happened to me yesterday. It made me stop and think.

Malachy was feeling poorly, and had woken yesterday with a temperature, and after his afternoon nap, he was burning up again. After Calpol, and whilst I was waiting for it to kick in and cool him down, he just wasn’t a happy bunny. Nothing I did made him happier, and you realise, that although they really really need you, you don’t actually know what it is they need. After a long snuggly feed, he eventually rested his head against me, and I began to stroke his cheek until he fell asleep. After some tossing and turning to get into the exact right position for his maximum comfort, he finally fell into a deep sleep on me. Meanwhile, at the other end of the same sofa, I noticed that Lylah’s head was dropping up and down. Monster’s University just wasn’t entertaining enough, and the little lady was nodding off as well. I got her comfy as best I could with Mally lying on top of me, and they both slept like that for the next hour or so.

There wasn’t much I could do. I debated putting him back in his cot. But this was a different sleep. This was a sleep that was relaxed and comforted because he had fallen asleep on mummy. He was warm from my body and full from the warm milk he had just guzzled. I had made him feel better from whatever he was feeling a moment before. No, I thought, this sleep is for us. He wants to be comforted and to lie on mummy and cuddle in close. Lylah was comfortable and lying against my legs. I felt like I could burst with happiness, and was overwhelmed with a feeling of love. They both NEEDED me. Not in the usual, every day ways, but in their moment of tired, exhausted, poorlyness, I was needed to be a mummy, someone they could snuggle into to everything better.

This week we decided it was a good idea to take a nearly 3 year old and a nearly 6 month old on a long ol’ car trip to Essex. In hindsight, thinking this journey would be smooth runnings may have been hugely optimistic, and thinking back over the 2 day escapade, I’m surprised we returned relatively stress free and still with hair.

My friend Debbie, who I met at University, and her husband Bryn, have just had a beautiful baby boy, and as half term meant they’d be at home together as a family, we decided that we would take a two day, one night trip. On the packing front, this wasn’t too much hard work. A couple of changes of clothes for Chris and I, 4 each for the kids (it will become clear later just how crucial this decision was), a few toiletries and snacks, and a tank full of petrol, and we were set. Of course, our aim was to leave nice and early, and we set our alarms for 6ish, ready to be on the road for 7am. Forward to Tuesday morning, and we were finally ready to go at 745.

Still, we were all packed up, kids in tow, all set for our family adventure! I was excited; I hit the road with enthusiasm, listening to a NOW album of Christmas songs at Lylah’s request. Of course.

The first thing that struck me as we were an hour into the journey and Lylah was fast asleep, was that she may need a wee. She’d gone before we left, but the last thing we needed was a car seat stinking of fresh and then stale urine! A quick stop at Fleet services, and the toddler was toileted and the baby was breast fed. Time to hit the road again.

All was going really well. We were on track time wise, our destination being a quaint little farm, where we would meet our friends and their new addition for lunch and partake in a trail around the farm to see the animals.

With a couple of hours left to go from our pit stop, we made sure Lylah had plenty to snack on in the back seat, not wanting her to go hungry or dehydrate on this epic journey. About an hour left to go, and we were set to have achieved a stress free journey. Result!

“Mummy, I feel a bit sicky. I feel sick”

“You feel sick Lylah? You’ll be okay, just close your eyes and put your head back and you’ll feel better”

“Mummy, I need medicine, I feel sick! I need medicine”

“Lylah, you don’t need medicine! You’ll be okay”

“Mummy, Daddy I feel si…BLLEEEUUURRGGGHHHHHH”

What. The…..???????

My poor Lylah was vomiting all down herself. I was trying to negotiate fast moving cars on the M3, whilst glancing at Lylah who was covered in orange coloured vomit. Chris was looking around from the passenger seat trying to reassure her whilst she screamed and cried.

Chris pointed out there was nothing we could do as I panicked about just how much sick she was covered in. Then Lylah said exactly what I was thinking; “But these are my best clothes mummy!!”, still crying, with sick dripping from her mouth. Sorry.

She did calm down a bit and at one point was pointing out the contents of her sick to us. Look mummy, there is Pom bears! And it’s also got some weetabix!!

About 15 minutes later we were able to pull in to a services and get her out to get her cleaned up. Out came the perfectly packed items from the boot, so we could get the change of clothes, wipes, new shoes, in order to get Lylah not smelling of Pom bear sick.

All sorted, and the car seat cleaned up, we were on our way, when Malachy began his new favourite thing, SCREAMING in his car seat. He’s done this for a while, but 20 mins of it when you have been in a car for 4 hours, and have just cleaned up sick does tend to try your patience. We arrived at our destination, and as soon as I lifted him out he was back to his angelic smily self. Of course.

After a delicious lunch and an autumnal walk around the farm, we told Lylah it was time to check into our hotel. When we left that morning she had informed us that she didn’t want to go to the hotel and she wanted to sleep in her owl bed at home. Rewind back to our summer trip to Devon where she told us for 2 days straight that she didn’t like holiday and wanted to go home. However, all was well upon arrival at the Premier Inn, and Lylah thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the reception staff and setting off the fire alarm by opening the emergency exit door.

We settled into the room, when Chris informed me he wasn’t feeling too well, and I was thankful I’d packed drugs for us as well as the necessary Calpol, teething gel, teething salts etc for the children.

That evening, we arrived at Debbie and Bryn’s house, and Lylah had fallen asleep in the car, so woke up feeling a little grumpy. You never know what Lylah you might get when she wakes up. Tonight, we had the Lylah that instantly stated to our hosts that she wants to go home. Delightful. Bryn pulled out the CBeebies card and all was well again, and by the end of the evening she was making herself at home, with Bryn her new best friend, bossing him around and making best friends with their dog. Poor Chris was still feeling unwell, and couldn’t finish his portion of banoffie pie, and anyone that knows Chris will understand that this is not normal. I however, had 2, non slimming world friendly, delicious slices of Debbie’s home made mouth watering dessert.

We went back after a lovely evening, and I longed for a night of minimally interrupted sleep in the hotel bed. Of course this was not on the cards for me. Malachy woke every couple of hours without fail, and I woke up feeling like I was hungover from the severe lack of sleep. We treated ourselves to an all you can eat breakfast and ventured into town for a play in the park. But it was peeing it down, and the park equipment was covered in wet slippery rain. Not that that stopped Lylah and Chris, they had a great time running around, tiring her out for the journey home.

Before we left for the final leg home, I felt absolutely brilliant. In spite of the vom episode, Chris feeling unwell and the sleepless night, I was bright eyed and ready for the stint home, kids asleep in the back. After a necessary pit stop 2 hours into the journey, we continued on, and were on the home straight until we hit traffic. It was 4:30pm. Bad timing. We were trickling through this traffic, when Malachy decides to have one of his screaming episodes. We took the opportunity to pull over and give him a feed. Lylah also needed a wee, so we asked her to go in the grass in the layby. Oh no…tantrum and full meltdown time (kicking seat and screaming style) meant that we couldn’t convince her to go for a wee in the grass. I wasn’t convinced she could hold it for another hour or so, and I was past the point of being tolerant, and it all got a bit too much inside our VW Golf. After snapping at Lylah that she has to go for a wee, her tantrum only escalated, so we decided to leave her be and if we have a soppy car seat as a result, then so be it.

Malachy screamed for the remainder of the journey, and the pinnacle was Chris and I singing “Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his nose” at the top of our voices, attempting harmonies, to a) make him stop crying and b) drown out the sound of his crying. Lylah slept through this nursery rhyme karaoke session, and Malachy had moments of quiet, but he came out on top overall as I don’t think I’ve ever been so relived to pull into the driveway.

Things with a second baby are so different than with your first. Might sound like an obvious statement, but one month in, and it is is strikingly obvious to me when I look back over the first four weeks of Malachy’s life and realise how we have done things so differently this time around. This is partly led by Malachy, as by nature he is a different baby to what Lylah was in so many ways, but also partly by us, because as parents we have approached the newborn days with a different attitude.

It’s still a world of unknowns…even though you do go into it with a certain air of cockiness and an ‘I know it all attitude’, a second baby will present many differences to the first. For example, unlike with Lylah, the breast feeding is going really well this time, and has done from day one. So I thought I’d got away with it scott free; he’s putting on weight, feeding well, etc etc. But no, he has developed oral thrush, something new and unknown and which has already had an impact on his feeds.

These are a few things I’ve noticed that we’ve done differently with baby round two:

Google. We hardly use it! With Lylah, I recall us being up at all hours in our bedroom, the only light coming from Chris’ iPhone as he frantically Googled how to get this wind out of our little girl! We Googled everything, from breast feeding (I saved every page I could find on breast milk storage), colic, methods to relieve colic, ‘why is our baby crying’, ‘why is our baby still crying’, and the old favourite, ‘how to stop my our baby crying’.

Going out. I didn’t properly leave the house for some time after Lylah was born. I was happy to stay in, dressed in PJs, feeding on the sofa and perhaps freshening up for the occasional visitor. This time, I was taking Lylah to pre-school, baby in tow, by the end of week two, and had ventured out lots before this with Chris’ help. A month in and we are out and about most days, Malachy just being dragged along for the ride of our pre-existing toddler routine.

Soothing. Uh Oh, the baby’s crying! What, you mean your second baby, who you can’t actually get to because the toddler is having another meltdown whilst hanging from her swing set? Oh, the baby has stopped crying already and settled himself? That’s good then! As soon as Lylah made a sound when she was a baby, one or both of us would be there in a flash. No such luck for Malachy, he gets to soothe himself while Mummy is pulling her hair out over number one. This isn’t to say we don’t ever comfort him (I can imagine you’re thinking this poor child is left to fend for himself!), it’s just that it might take a little longer to get to him than it did the first time round!

Cuddles. On the other hand, Malachy does get a lot of cuddles. When Lylah is tucked up in bed, and we can spend some one on one time with the little man, we cuddle him, a lot! We would never have dared done this with Lylah. When she was settled that was it, we didn’t dare touch her for fear of her never sleeping again!

Bathing. Washing Lylah as a baby was two person job, filled with the dread that we were going to accidentally scold her/drown her/drop her. It was a long time before I bathed her confidently on my own. With Malachy, I can easily bathe him in his baby bath, while Chris is bathing Lylah in the tub, simultaneously chatting away to them, with no fear about whether I’m going to accidentally dunk the baby.

Photos. We haven’t taken as many photos or videos or Malachy as we did Lylah. Everyone says this happens, but I didn’t think it would apply to me. It will save the computer memory. Please note; I have still taken A LOT!

Socialising. I would NEVER have taken Lylah out to a restaurant/party/meal, somewhere public, at one month old. But last night we took our two year old and baby to a birthday meal, in a restaurant with actual people, whilst attempting to have adult conversation and a hot meal. It was pretty much a success, and just made us realise even more, that number two just takes it in their stride, and slots in to family life.

So, as Malachy continues to settle into our lives, we realise how blessed we are to have such a relaxed little boy, who seems to be becoming as much of a social butterfly as his sister!

In Malachy news, he weighs a whopping 1 stone. Yep, we’ve started wearing his 3-6 month clothes today, and now he actually looks comfortable!

In Lylah news, today she corrected me and then asked “understand?” She also told me I was bossy this week. Our conversations are getting funnier and she is getting cheekier! We also went bowling, but it was too busy so we ended up just playing in the arcade. Now Lylah thinks that going bowling is mummy and daddy frantically trying to win her a Sven cuddly from the grabber machine.

Lylah is currently staring at me repeating ‘mum’ ‘mama’ and ‘mummy’ over and over again and the baby has just started crying. Time for me to go!

I set myself one challenge today alongside generally keeping myself and my two children clean, fed and watered. To go to the supermarket and buy ingredients for a Sunday roast tomorrow.

And I did it!

I could end this post there, as I am so flipping happy with myself, but I won’t, because the first outing with my two little people to our local Lidl and Sainsburys was pretty eventful.

I was pretty sure, as I arrived back home, with the newly acquired shopping haul and still with the two children (thank goodness – leaving one in the meat aisle would have been a bad first trip), that it wasn’t at all stressful and I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then as I snapped at Lylah for the fifth time over lunch at my nans, I realised that actually it may have taken a little toll.

Today started well, and I managed to shower, de-fuzz, dress, and actually put on some make up, all whilst Lylah played and Malachy stared at me, waving his arms about from his vibrating chair (best baby thing EVER).

So I confidently left the house, two children strapped into their car seats, all the necessary transport adaptors on hand, and minimal baggage in tow. I was praying we would have no wee or poo incidents from Lylah on our outing, nor an explosive nappy from Malachy whilst strapped into the Lidl trolley.

I was maybe being a bit ambitious doing both Lidl and Sainsburys, but one was for food, and one was for the 25% off clothing sale, not to be missed when you have an ever growing toddler!

Lidl first. The initial thing that came to my attention is just how much I need the mother and baby parking spaces now more than ever. Having Lylah off a leash makes my stomach leap every time she walks further than an inch away from me, and I really need to be close to the trolley park if I’m carrying my handbag, the car seat and child, as well as guiding a toddler away from moving vehicles.

I couldn’t see a spare space to start with, then I spotted two older looking people getting out of their car in what I thought was the last spare space. I was about ready to wind the windows down and unleash my fury, until a child popped out of their car. She was a big child though, and they probably didn’t need to park there as I’m pretty confident she could’ve walked the extra few feet alongside two fully grown adults. Luckily for them, I spotted the empty space next to them, so proceeded to park up and chill out.

Once Malachy was strapped onto the trolley, which by the way are the biggest trolleys there due to the fact they need to accommodate babies in car seats atop them, we set out on our journey through the aisles of Lidl. Lylah was being good and staying by my side, but one downside to not having her strapped in somewhere is that she takes great pleasure in throwing whatever she fancies into the trolley! So I spent half the excursion taking things out of the trolley! My first main obstacle was that I kept banging into people, especially old, slow people on my travels. I was trying to keep it swift because there are no toilets in Lidl, and this can be disastrous with a not long potty trained 2 year old. But the constant manoeuvring and reversing meant that everything was taking a lot longer than intended.

We made it to the checkout with a full trolley, but as I was starting to pack things away, Lylah announced she needed a wee wee. The panic in my voice came out in a shriek like tone which said “you need to hold it sweetheart, just squeeeeeze really tight, squeeeeeeeze it, and we’ll go when we get to the car”. I momentarily panicked that I hadn’t packed the Potette, but thankfully I remember seeing it in the boot. There were always drains I suppose, would just have to hover her over one of those if not! As I packed the remaining items and frantically paid, I kept glancing down at the floor beneath Lylah, each time imagining a pool of wee, soaked little pink leggings and white shoes covered in yellowy liquid. There was time when I brought the actual potty into actual Lidl, in the actual trolley, in case of times like these. Have I become too confident in my child, who does tend to ‘p*ss like a racehorse’?!

Bless her heart, she held it all the way to the car, and without even the slightest of leaks, waited patiently until I had put the stupid flipping Pottete liner in the stupid flipping Potette (sorry, although it has saved me on many an occasion, anyone that has tried to use one will understand me), then sat astride it on the pavement and did her thing. Phew.

Once the car was packed up with shopping and kids, I turned to take the trolley and liner full of wee wee to the trolley park and bin. Only to be greeted by a lady (whom I’d not met before), who proceeded to tell me about her recent travels to Spain. I don’t mind talking to strangers in Lidl car park about their holidays, in fact, its something we don’t do enough as a society, and this lovely lady obviously felt like she could talk to me just from the look of my backside bent over the boot of my Golf, but when you have two children in the car, one probably due another wee at any second, and one a three week old newborn who constantly pukes out of his nose, its hard to not need to hurry things along a little. After a good five minutes, she went on her way, and I managed to get the trolley back, the wee bag dumped and get on our way to supermarket number 2 for some clothes shopping.

As we got out of the car in Sainsburys, I noticed the same lady strolling towards the main entrance, so I subtly hovered back in order to keep things swift before she started telling me about her next Mediterranean adventure.

This time, as there was no big shop to do, I opted to pop the car seat on top of the pushchair chassis, which meant I could at a least see where I was going, and Lylah again walked. I forgot though that Sainsburys is a little more interesting to a child’s eyes than Lidl, and once we were in the children’s clothing section, do you think I could prize her away from the Frozen hair clips and Sofia the First tiara selection? After a few “but I neeeeeeed it” moments from Madam Boyd, I persuaded her to leave with some half price hair clips and a sun hat in tow.

Then as we left the cosmetics aisle, Lylah insisted, at the top of her voice, that she push Malachy and not me. When I tried to assist her in the steering, she went into mini meltdown mode, and I had to assure her that I was simply “helping you push him the right way” whilst actually pushing and steering with one hand so she believed she was doing it. I should’ve gone straight to the nearby checkout right then and there, but my favourite raspberry cheesecake was calling me from the chilled bit by the bakery at the far end of the store, so we had Lylah ‘pushing’ Malachy for quite some time, just so I could get my cheesecake fix.

We were served by the lovely Sue, and Lylah was her usual friendly self whilst sat on top of the checkout, showing off her hat and baby brother. Its moments like this that make the stress of these things all worthwhile. You would never know from her cheeky little grin that just moments earlier she was emptying her bladder in Lidl car park.

We bundled into the car and I was hugely pleased that it was all over. Lots of money, a panicked wee wee, a nice conversation with a stranger and a lot of struggling with heavy things later, and we were done.

There are moments of peace and quiet, the baby settled and Lylah enjoying playing with something for more than 20 seconds.

There are moments where the screaming from both of them is so loud I literally don’t know who to deal with first.

There are moments full of love and overwhelming happiness, where my little family is all together, cuddling on the bed, giggling and playing, and most importantly, not crying.

There are moments when everything is so chaotic that pulling my hair out seems like the only reasonable option.

This is day 6 after Chris going back to work, although today doesn’t count, as he has a day off. But days 1-5 have been…interesting.

I should firstly officially give my baby boy a Jugglehood announcement. Baby Malachy Christopher Boyd arrived with us on 30th April 2015, at 12:14am. He is absolutely wonderful, and if you’d asked me in the first 2 weeks (funnily enough while Chris was still at home with us), then everything was going swimmingly, and I was finding the whole experience of 2 children surprisingly calm.

I have been feeling great, he is feeding really well and gaining weight, he is sleeping between feeds with very little fuss and Lylah responded really well to our new addition and adores her “baby brudder”. Then Chris went back to work…

To start with, things were going well. I’ve basically worked out that as long as one is a) asleep or b) occupied for more than 5 minutes, then I can deal with the other one. It’s the needing me both at the same time scenario that I’m not quite sure how to deal with! It can’t be that hard, I know a lot of people with 2 or more babies, and they all make it look so easy!

I can deal with the night feeds, I can deal with the tiredness, I can cope with the 2-3 hour feeds, I can even cope with the reality that with baby number 2, there is no going back to bed after their early morning feed while they sleep on, because of a certain two year old shouting for their Weetabix! But I am struggling to manage the double screaming episodes. The tantrumming toddler (who has become so defiant since daddy’s return to work that I feel stupid for thinking that she had adapted to the whole scenario like a dream) VS the new addition (who is so cute and cuddly that it surprises me when he screams so loud and shrill that it hurts my ears).

The first episode occurred on day 1 of daddy’s return to work. Lylah needed a bath, but I didn’t have the time to give her the whole bath time fun we normally have, so we opted for a quick shower while Malachy was settled in his chair watching the fun. She went in okay, but then the showering fun turned quickly into the mother of all tantrums when she refused to have her hair washed. Amidst this tantrum consisting of throwing herself around the slippery shower tray and crying so hard she was starting to cough and choke, the baby started to scream. Just out of the blue, no real justifiable reason that I could see or think of, just screaming. This made me panic beyond reason, as my instinct was to go to him and calm him down. But then I had the realisation that if I did this I would be doing a couple of things. 1) Lylah would probably slip and injure herself and 2) I would be going straight to him when Lylah was clearly in need of the attention. Agree or not with giving your attention to a tantrumming toddler, but in the time when a new sibling has been introduced to the environment they are used to, I have felt that ignoring her tantrums may have a longer lasting negative effect.

Anyway, I had to leave Malachy to cry, which was hard, but he was strapped into his chair and I could see that he was safe, and I managed to calm Lylah down. The miracle was that as I was sorting Lylah out, Malachy just stopped crying and fell back to sleep! And then it was all fine and calm again.

These daily blips are, I suppose, only to be expected, but they have increased my stress levels and I’ve noticed that in 5 days, my grey hair count has gone up.

But with time, this will be a breeze. 2 children? Easy…she says!

Welcome to Jugglehood, Malachy Boyd. I’ve got a feeling this is going to be fun!

Yesterday marked one week of full time potty training for us. Lylah is 2 and 3 months (nearly), and we felt like she was more than ready. My nan has always told me that most kids are ready around the age of 2 and 3 months, which is very specific, but seemed to be right in our case.

We probably could have started a little while back, but when you’re a working mummy, juggling a toddler, a job, pregnancy and twenty million other things, with your child being transported all over the place for various childcare, there isn’t enough consistency in their daily routines to get it done properly.

In my opinion, there is no right age, or right way to toilet/potty train. The strongest sign for me was that Lylah started to tell us, not all the time, but she did enjoy the occasional sit on the loo, so we didn’t want to miss the wee wee boat.

I’ve got some friends who started this process months ago, and some who haven’t started yet, some who went straight to loo, and some who didn’t. The truth is, that you HAVE to not only work out what’s best for your child’s life, but also for yours. For me, I wanted the ‘training’ experience for Lylah to be one on one with me, taking her through the process, and doing it in a short time. In order to do this, Lylah needed to be able to communicate effectively for the task, be able to follow simple instructions, and do little things like pull down her own pants and trousers.

I’m not a follower nor a fan of Gina Ford usually, but her book, potty training in one week, makes a lot of good points. I followed it pretty much to the tee, and (I think) I can safely say, that after one week, Lylah is pretty much there. Yes, she will have accidents, like two days ago when she hid inside her wardrobe and wee’d on her shoes, and there will be times when she just doesn’t make it in time, but on the whole, she’s telling me when she needs it, and against Gina’s advice, we’ve even ventured out a bit this week, and Lylah has been fine and kept up the good work.

Poos are a little more difficult, and it’s hilarious how your child finally sitting down and producing one outside of a nappy can make you feel immensely proud. It’s also brilliant how talking about weeing and pooing all the time makes you slightly obsessed about the subject. Our group of mummy friends are sharing pictures and stories of our potty training progress, a true, stick together approach to the task!

The first morning was a complete disaster. I was keeping a log (tee hee) of Lylah’s movements, and after her first accident, Chris completed the log with the line “complete failure in the lounge as Lylah wee’d all over the sofa” (on towels might I add, I’m not that stupid). I was so disheartened by three accidents in a row plus a poo in her brand new sparkly pants, that I rang my mum and told her I didn’t think Lylah was ready. I was taking her to to the toilet every half an hour, which Lylah hated. My mum made the good point that training her should be about her telling me when she needs to go, and she needs to have accidents to realise this. So I chilled out a bit, and by tea time, she was telling me. After 2 days we had 3 days straight where she was completely dry, including an afternoon at my mums. We’ve had the odd accident since, it’s only been a week after all, and I’m sure there are many to come, but I’m incredibly proud of our little girl.

I was petrified to start this process, the whole thing seemed completely mind baffling not to say stressful, but now we’re past the starting post, I am confident that my little girl has turned a corner and is going strong. My best piece of advice is to listen to your child, watch for when they’re ready, and don’t be disheartened if they’re not. It’s not a race, let them lead you and let nature take its course.

It was a much needed get together of my nearest and dearest, where we had a giggle and ate a gorgeous Guinness cake made by my nan (thanks Nan – it tastes good the next day too!)

My mum asked me a while back whether I wanted a ‘baby shower’ this time, and I said no – not because I didn’t enjoy my first fabulous one, but that I felt guilty about people coming along and bringing gifts etc, for the second time. My mum admitted yesterday that at first, when I’d said this, she was relieved, as it meant no party planning, but then once she’d had a chat with my sister, they changed their minds and excitedly started planning a little surprise, as they wanted to celebrate this baby as well as my first. My first baby shower was big and a lot of special people were there, which was amazing and touching, but mum kept this one smaller and more manageable for them, which makes me feel less guilty about them having to host one!

I was secretly really happy that mum and Kay did this for me, and it means I now have some lovely baby boy things – before now, he would’ve been dressed in a lot of pink flowery things from day 1, and wrapped in a soft pink, fluffy blanket!

It also showed me how important it is to celebrate these amazing moments in your life, whether it be with loads of people, or just a few, it’s nice to mark the occasion and take some time to appreciate the amazing thing thats about to happen to your family.

In the midst of potty training (update coming soon), de stressing from work, and feeling slightly ill prepared for this baby’s arrival, yesterday afternoon was a really special moment. Plus, it was a surprise, so it meant I didn’t have to do anything (slightly unsettling for control freak me, but a nice change!)

I also had a moment where pride surged through my body, as Lylah joined me on the sofa when I was opening some presents, cuddled in to me, then proceeded to show everyone what I just opened for ‘baby brudder’. Having her there made it even more special.

Plus there was cake, and that’s always a winner!

So thank you mum and Kayleigh, I had a lovely afternoon, and I really appreciate your efforts.

In other news, official first day of Mat leave is today! It’s been great so far, and Lylah keeps shouting ‘no work for mummy yay’ – did I make it that obvious to her that I couldn’t wait to finish 😉

A bit like the Carl Frampton match last night, I can feel the next round of a long ol’ slog coming on in the shape of maternity leave round 2!

Tomorrow morning marks the start of the last week of professional work for another year or so…and relax…or not.

In all honesty, I am completely blessed to be able to have 7 whole weeks off before baby number 2’s arrival. First time round, that amount of time would have been spent getting pampered with my feet up, whilst occasionally doing something nesty in preparation for my little princess’ arrival.

So I keep saying that I’m about to have 7 weeks off for a much-needed rest for when baby arrives, but in reality it will be far from that. I will spend my days crouching down over my massively awkward bump to pick up toys off the ground so I don’t slip on them and injure myself, I will be up and down off the floor in various playing stints with Lylah, keeping her busy and occupied for a few minutes at a time, so I can sit upright supported by twenty cushions on the few occasions where she will happily occupy herself. I will be preparing weeks of food for Lylah, which I can freeze down, and bung in the microwave whilst I am busy breastfeeding number 2. I will be attempting to be somewhat organised and pretend that I am a little bit ready for this baby, and pack my hospital bag, wash the newborn clothes, make up the Moses basket and organise the nappys/wipes/cotton wool/creams/infacol/nappy sacks etc etc.

I will be also starting the dreaded, I mean, delightful, toilet training, in the hope that my 2 year old will grace the toilet seat with ease and be an obedient wee’er and poo’er in one week, Gina Ford stylee.

I will mainly be praying that Lylah doesn’t give up her daytime nap just yet, so that for those precious couple of hours, I can actually lay still, close my eyes, and sleep.

But at least I won’t be at work. I will be spending precious hours with my little girl, breathing in those special moments, where for the last time, it will be just me and her.

And then for round 2! Those first few weeks and months of sleepless nights, looking grey and tired in the eyes and face, zombified for all to see, the potential of emotional outbursts for Lylah, followed by the guaranteed emotional outbursts from me.

I don’t mean to turn the maternity leave experience and spending all of that amazing (and tiring) time with your baby into a negative thing, that’s not my intention at all, as it really has been one of the best periods of my life so far, it’s just that its is long hard slog, where you need real stamina, both mentally and physically, a fighting attitude, and one where, especially if co-sleeping is involved, you do actually get punched quite a lot!

I’m looking forward to experiencing the whole thing again, and finding out what’s it like doing it with 2 in tow. The whole premise of this blog was that I would record my experiences of juggling work and being a mum, and all of our adventures along the way.

Well, now that one type of work is nearly over, let the continuation of my work as a mother continue and grow, juggling 2 pooey bums, juggling 2 tantrum wielding little monkeys, juggling a 2 year old and a new born, and juggling all of the things that come with it.

And guess what? I can’t wait for any of it – insert big fat smiley happy face here and a number of posts saying the complete opposite to follow! Jugglehood – round 2!